Health Sciences & Social Welfare

A clinical trial on a drug that researchers hope will reduce inflammation in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease will begin at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). The JABSOM trial involves an investigational therapy, NP001, developed by Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. This study aims to assess whether a single dose …

Naleen Naupaka Andrade, professor and director of the John A. Burns School of Medicine’s (JABSOM) National Center on Indigenous Hawaiian Behavioral Health, has been honored with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s (AACAP) 2017 Jeanne Spurlock Lecture and Award on Diversity and Culture. This distinguished award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of the understanding of …

ARCS Foundation Honolulu Chapter has named John A. Burns School of Medicine Professor Richard Yanagihara its 2017 ARCS Scientist of the Year. The Scientist of the Year award recognizes a University of Hawaiʻi researcher whose advancement of knowledge in a STEM field and mentorship of new scientists mirrors the ARCS Foundation mission of advancing science in America. Yanagihara, an expert in emerging diseases, will discuss Hantaviruses: A Personal Journey of Discovery and …

Ivica Zalud, has been named 2017 Physician of the Year by the Hawaiʻi Medical Association (HMA). Zalud is the chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine. Zalud will receive the honor on October 7 at the 2017 Ola Pono Ike banquet at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Under Zalud’s leadership, several members of the department have invested their own …

The University of Hawaiʻi is expanding its studies of a proposed vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus. A new grant of nearly $112,000 awarded to Liana Medina, a PhD candidate working with Assistant Professor Axel Lehrer at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) makes the additional work possible. Lehrer’s promising vaccine candidate has already been proven effective in animal clinical studies. Under the grant from the National Institutes …

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has been awarded a major federal grant to establish a Center for Biomedical Research Excellence on Diabetes. The $11.2 federal grant, which may be renewed for two additional five-year cycles after its initial five-year period, will intensify Hawaiʻi-based research into a disease that currently affects 155,000 adults and children—1 in 9 individuals in Hawaiʻi. Additionally, Hawaiʻi has 460,000 with pre-diabetes, a condition …

A long term healthy, high-quality diet can reduce the risk of cardiometabolic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or stroke according to a new University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center multiethnic cohort study. A high-quality diet includes a diet high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes, with lean, low-fat protein sources plus, fat-free or low-fat dairy foods and oils, such as olive …

Homelessness and inadequate housing are major causes of unnecessary hospitalizations, according to a study by University of Hawaiʻi researchers. The study, “I Need my Own Place to get Better”: Patient Perspectives on the Role of Housing in Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations, is from an ongoing project to understand and reduce potentially preventable hospitalizations for diabetes and heart disease in Hawaiʻi. Principal investigator and Office of Public Health …

University of Hawaiʻi spinouts Adnoviv, LLC; Radial3D and SNR Analytics, Inc. (SNRAI) were invited to present at the prestigious First Look LA showcase of university technologies held on June 28, 2017 at California State University, Los Angeles. Presentations were made to an invitation-only audience of over 200 investors, entrepreneurs, and faculty and staff from the participating universities. The University Hawaiʻi spinouts were invited to participate in the showcase by the UH Office …

Gertraud Maskarinec, researcher in the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center’s Cancer Epidemiology Program received a $20,000 Fulbright Award, to enable her to research the relation of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and breast cancer in Caucasian and Asian women. The research will address the global health problems of obesity, diabetes and breast cancer. As a nutritional epidemiologist, Maskarinec will perform comparative research using new statistical methods …